Belmont businessman pleads guilty to high-dollar Ponzi scheme

Published: Friday, May 10, 2013 at 12:13 PM.

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Sometimes after the deals were supposedly completed, Helms would repay the interest on the money he’d accepted, but talk his backers into reinvesting the principal, Smith said.

“He’d call me and say, ‘Chris, I’ve got another deal on a piece of equipment coming in, and you’ve been good to me. You want me to just roll over your money?’” he said.

Smith said he began bumping into other investors who Helms owed money to. Helms made excuses for why he couldn’t pay them back, such as blaming the IRS for freezing his accounts.

After trying to engage local police, Smith said he and his friends eventually contacted the U.S. Secret Service about the matter.

Bell said he was reviewing evidence against Helms regarding worthless checks earlier this year when he was contacted by a Secret Service agent about the more serious allegations. They made the decision to pursue Helms based only on what they could prove he had done in Gaston County, Bell said.

The court issued a $500,000 civil judgment against Helms that will cater to the seven identified victims, as well as anyone who has yet to realize Helms stole from them, Bell said. They will be able to come forward and be eligible for restitution, provided they can prove they were scammed, he said.

Banks or others outside the county who believe they were wronged by Helms will have to sue or bring charges independently, Bell said.

Chris Smith had only known Jerry Lynn Helms personally a few years. But he knew him well by association, as both were well-rooted in Belmont.

So when Helms came to him a year and a half ago with an investment opportunity for buying and reselling heavy equipment, Smith believed in him enough to put up almost $10,000. In the ensuing months, Smith and other investors handed over even more money, secure in Helms’ reputation and the promise of a bigger payout down the road.

“He lived right in town with his wife. His two daughters go to school here. I knew his kids,” said Smith, a local businessman and Belmont native. “He was just an everyday person we all trusted.”

But instead of investing the hundreds of thousands of dollars he solicited, prosecutors say Helms was putting it toward a desperate, futile attempt to save his own business, Prestige Pipeline. It came to light in Gaston County Superior Court on Friday, in what prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme.

Helms, 48, accepted an agreement that involved him pleading guilty to 14 counts of obtaining property under false pretense.

Anson County Superior Court Judge Kevin Bridges noted Helms could have faced a maximum of more than 45 months in prison for the charges against him. Under the agreement, he will serve between two and a half years and seven years in prison.

Gaston County District Attorney Locke Bell said the 14 counts were tied to seven people who Helms defrauded. But it’s still uncertain how much money and how many total victims were involved. “Loads of people out there” likely have yet to realize they were swindled, Bell said.

Helms is penniless now, said his defense attorney, Rick Beam. The quaint and eye-catching house he formerly lived in with his family at 302 N. Central Ave. in Belmont is now uninhabited and in foreclosure.

Business troubles

Helms launched Prestige Pipeline about eight years ago, Bell said. The business had addresses in Denver and Belmont and specialized in laying underground pipes for companies at new construction sites.

Bell said the business was at one time worth $7 million. But after the economic crash several years ago, Helms’ enterprise began to struggle.

“He tried to keep the business afloat,” Beam said.

Beginning in December 2011, Helms began to approach friends and acquaintances who had money to invest. He told them he had a friend who could buy used construction equipment and heavy machinery — such as boring machines and backhoes — for around $150,000 at auctions, Bell said in offering an example. The same connection supposedly knew people at Duke Energy and other companies with work orders to buy such equipment for as much as $200,000, or $50,000 profit.

It was all a lie, Bell said.

“In fact, no one had work orders from those corporations,” he said. “These corporations don’t buy used equipment. At no time did (Helms) ever have any connections with these corporations.”

Helms secured the trust of his investors by saying his contact was someone who many of them knew — a man who works in heavy equipment sales. In reality, that person knew nothing about the claims Helms was making, Bell said.

Helms kept suspicions at bay for a while by telling his victims he could reinvest the money they’d made and make even more profit. Over a period of months, as the investors began to talk to one another and ask more questions, the lie was exposed, Bell said.

“Finally (Helms) was unable to pay those who invested because no one was investing behind them,” he said.

‘He’s never once told us he’s sorry’

Smith said the trust he and several other friends all had for Helms kept them from believing it could be a scam.

“Like a fool, we said yeah, let’s do it,” he said. “With every deal, he said it would be a 25 to 40 percent (profit).”

Sometimes after the deals were supposedly completed, Helms would repay the interest on the money he’d accepted, but talk his backers into reinvesting the principal, Smith said.

“He’d call me and say, ‘Chris, I’ve got another deal on a piece of equipment coming in, and you’ve been good to me. You want me to just roll over your money?’” he said.

Smith said he began bumping into other investors who Helms owed money to. Helms made excuses for why he couldn’t pay them back, such as blaming the IRS for freezing his accounts.

After trying to engage local police, Smith said he and his friends eventually contacted the U.S. Secret Service about the matter.

Bell said he was reviewing evidence against Helms regarding worthless checks earlier this year when he was contacted by a Secret Service agent about the more serious allegations. They made the decision to pursue Helms based only on what they could prove he had done in Gaston County, Bell said.

The court issued a $500,000 civil judgment against Helms that will cater to the seven identified victims, as well as anyone who has yet to realize Helms stole from them, Bell said. They will be able to come forward and be eligible for restitution, provided they can prove they were scammed, he said.

Banks or others outside the county who believe they were wronged by Helms will have to sue or bring charges independently, Bell said.

Helms declined to speak in court Friday, only turning to wave goodbye to a few supporters before being taken into custody. Beam said his client is “quite embarrassed” about his crimes.

Several local investors who lost money to Helms declined to talk on the record this week. But Smith said his own disgust and disbelief speaks for them all.

He said he’s certain Helms’ scheme took advantage of people well outside Gaston County, and involved much more money than people even realize.

“I considered him a friend,” said Smith. “He really fooled us all really good. He’s a professional con artist. And he’s never once told us he’s sorry.”

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.

NOTE: An earlier version of this story indicated Mr. Helms could have been sentenced to 45 years in prison. It should have read 45 months.